“Moving Money for Better” goes far beyond moving money. It means connecting people, fostering financial inclusion, and creating Opportunity Beyond BordersTM scholarships. None of this would be possible without young and enthusiastic leaders who are passionate about changing the world for better. As part of this, Western Union is proud to announce our scholarship recipients who will attend the 2019 One Young World Summit.
One Young World is an international organization that connects and empowers young leaders to affect positive change for the world. It gives a platform to global citizens and builds bridges across the private and public sectors. Through the Moving Money for Better Scholarship, Cathrine Thebe and Trevor Schonewille were selected for their incredible impacts in creating financial inclusion solutions.
Cathrine Thebe: Founder of the Financial Literacy Trust
In 2016, Cathrine founded the Financial Literacy Trust with a vision to raise a financially literate generation in Botswana. The organization is an early market mover in raising awareness for financial literacy issues. The Financial Literacy Trust is working to launch an application with financial literacy programs and guides on behavior change to anyone with access to the internet. The application offers programs for all age groups, ranging from pre-school to adulthood. Cathrine sits in the Technical Working Group for the National Financial Inclusion Strategy of Botswana and has been selected to be a part of the 2019 class of the Obama Foundation Leaders, Africa Program.
Trevor Schonewille: Founder and CEO of Monkiri
Through his experience as an intern at an impact investment firm in Kenya and Cambodia, Trevor has seen firsthand how financial inclusion affects people. After seeing how impactful financial solutions can be and the issues from a lack of financial literacy, Trevor was inspired to start Monkiri. Monkiri is a mobile e-learning platform focused on financial literacy and inclusion in Cambodia and Myanmar. The platform teaches users about financial concepts, exposing them to relevant financial service providers. They have been selected for a United Nations Capital Development Fund program to improve financial and digital literacy and are working to reach 50,000 people in Myanmar over the next four months. After that, the Monkiri app will launch publicly where they have the potential to reach 100k users by the end of 2019. Long-term, Monkiri will expand its operations to 120 countries with seven million users. Their goal is to increase global financial literacy by 10% within 10 years. Monkiri is looking to revolutionize the way people interact with consumer finance. They want to make it simple, easy, and accessible for anyone to learn about financial concepts, and then be provided with transparency when selecting a service or product.
The scholarship allows these two extraordinary leaders to attend the One Young World Summit in London, United Kingdom, as Western Union delegated scholars. The summit brings together young leaders from all over the world to discuss and fight the world’s most pressing issues. You can learn more about it on the One Young World website or by reading the Annual Impact Report.
